Building ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø
The ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø project is currently under construction on a 180-hectare site in southern France.
Thirty-nine buildings and technical areas house the ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø tokamak and its plant systems. The heart of the facility—the Tokamak Building—is a seven-storey structure in reinforced concrete that sits 13 metres below the platform level and 60 metres above. Pre-assembly of tokamak components takes place in the adjacent Assembly Hall. Other auxiliary buildings in the vicinity of the Tokamak Building include cooling towers, electrical installations, a control room, facilities for the management of waste, and the cryogenics plant that will provide liquid helium to cool the ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø magnets.
Europe, as part of its commitments to the project, is building nearly all of the platform buildings and site infrastructure.
Each building, once structurally complete, is handed over to the ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø for the installation and assembly of equipment. According to the European Domestic Agency, the number of workers involved in site construction peaked in 2017-2018 at approximately 2,000 people. Now, although there are still European construction teams on site, a large additional workforce is contributing to machine and plant assembly and installation operations. An estimated 5,000 people are regularly present on the worksite, including management, engineering and supervisory teams from the ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø, the European Domestic Agency, and their contractors.
The ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø has overall responsibility for the successful integration and assembly of components delivered to the ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø site by the seven ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø Members. Machine assembly began in 2020. See the assembly pages to read about progress.
To see all the projects of ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø construction, see the Projects Underway and Archives pages.
Main construction milestones:
2006 Signature of the ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø Agreement
2007-2009 Land clearing and levelling
2010-2014 Ground support structure and seismic foundations for the tokamak
2012 Nuclear licensing milestone: ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø becomes a Basic Nuclear Installation under French law
2014-2023 Construction of the ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø installation (excepting the Hot Cell Facility)
2017- Assembly of the ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø plant
2020- Assembly of the ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø tokamak
2033-2034 Integrated commissioning
2034 Start of experiments (SRO)
Take a virtual tour of ºÚÁÏ×¨Çø construction .
See the latest drone video here.